I was measuring the armadillo pattern in the book the and comparing it with the amount Amy says to weave for each section. It seems very important to get this right because the armor piece is just one piece sewn on top of the armadillo, so each section needs to be just right. Well, I think it's because her sett was different from mine, but I noticed I need to make a few more stripes of each in order to get the right size to cut out. I get almost 3 rows of circles per inch, and I need about 3" for the neck to the gather, 4" for the gathered part with the triangles, and then the last section are more spots and I will need 5" of those. So I had to add a few rows to each of her suggested numbers. Here is a badly done sketch I made in the paint shop program:
With my sett, I am weaving 12 rows of spots for the bottom, 8 rows of triangles in the middle, and 9 rows of spots at the top, and that should give about 1 inch of room for some shrinking without too much leftover. I am hoping this will all work out just fine! Below is the pattern done in my colors and my way. Again, I changed a few things to suit my needs better. For example, I skipped a few dark plain weave stripes because I didn't have anything darker than the weft brown. Also, I reversed the triangles to point up so I can weave this section from the tail up, and the triangles are pointed up towards the head. It just makes more sense to me to do it this way because I can imagine the pattern laid right on top of my weaving.
And so far, I think it looks pretty darn good! I was hoping to get 4 armadillos out of this, but I've already woven through 3.5 armadillo shells with lots left on the loom!
It such neat fabric... great colors and a great texture!
If it didn't have such long floats on the back of the fabric, it would make some neat polka dotted dishtowels!
Did you know? "Armadillo" in Spanish means "little armored one." The Aztec called them azotochtli, or "turtle-rabbit."